Besides funfairs, Penistone Show, Penistone cinema and activities in ever-lengthening Events List, here are a few other activities that Penistone people do for leisure, sport, interest and entertainment. Please see the Clubs and Societies links page for contact details.
Sport and Outdoor Pursuits
Penistone has a Cricket Club (Spring Vale), Bowling Club and Penistone Church Football Club (which has senior and junior teams). Penistone Footpath Runners are based at Penistone Church Football Club. They are long-established and enjoy a healthy membership, with events scattered throughout the year. Their runners attend all of the big national events.
Penistone has a sports centre ('Leisure Centre') with karate, five-a-side football, various exercise machines, dance classes, junior classes and a multi-gym. Across the road is a private swimming pool for anyone to book. Penistone & District Angling Club has a long history and welcomes new members. On Penistone Showground, you will find a skateboard park, a kick wall and often a Junior football team will arrive or horsey activities might spring up from nowhere, such as gymkhana. Kids also go to the large recreation field on Church View Road (next to PCFC) or to Water Hall park for a kick-around.
The Rambler's Association and other walking groups have events in this area. Outside Penistone, there is Pennine Sailing Club at Dunford and another boat club at Hade Edge. Penistone Line Partnership puts musical events on specific train journeys between Huddersfield and Sheffield on the Penistone line but they also organise station to station walks, which take in the pubs. The Round Table are involved with many popular local events and they also organise walks, such as the Boundary Walk.
Song, Music and Stage
Penistone has long had a thespian tradition, with two soccieties who each put on at least two big productions each year. They are very happy to accept budding new thespians of all ages.
Thurlstone Brass Band is a highly regarded local asset and a welcome sound at any event. Penistone Church Bells are rung by an enthusiastic team of 'change ringers' every Thursday evening and at weddings. Millhouse Green Male Voice Choir has been around for a long time and there is another one at Bolsterstone. Of course, the weekly Organ Concerts in the Town Hall and St. Andrew's are very popular with older people.
Out of Interest
Here's a Flikr page of old Penistone Players' programmes.
Local History and Art
Penistone does not have a museum but Cawthorne village has a small council-owned museum a few miles away and Wortley Top Forge is an industrial museum with steam-driven machinery. Local historian Neville Roebuck made his wide collection of historical materials available in the Penistone Archive, currently (2013) being organised and scanned, with the intention of making it available to the public in the Community Centre. Penistone has a small Local History Group, which meets in the Autumn and Winter months and anyone can attend.
Of course, our fine Penistone Church is a piece of history in itself with its origins in the twelfth century and its tower is half a millennium old. There are occasional historical exhibitions in the church. WEA has regular lectures on historical and other local matters, open to the public and its activities listed near the Post Office.
There are two art groups in the area; Hen's Teeth and the more commercially orientated Pennine Artists, who both share a common background and feed into Artisan Fayres, which are held in the Market Barn. Local cafes also show artworks on their walls but especially The Arthouse on Church Street, which also runs art evenings with live models. An Embroiders' Guild completes the picture.
Photography
Penistone Camera Club is a well-regarded organisation with a very long history. It becomes most noticeable at Penistone Show, when the public will join in and submit their own photos in the hope of winning a prize. The club marquee is always bursting with visitors. There is also 'Video and Stills Group' which meets on the first and third Monday of each month in the Community Centre and is open to people who would like to improve their sound, vision and graphics skills.
Beauty Spots
When the sunny weather comes around, Cannon Hall gardens at Cawthorne Park are very (too!) popular, either for a stroll by the river, a kick-araound with a ball, an ice-cream in the sun, a walk around the gardens, throwing bread to the ducks, taking the kids to an open farm, inspecting the museum exhibits, visiting the nearby Garden Centre or just for a sit down and a cup of tea. Penistone has a less grand yet popular beauty spot on the top road at Hartcliff. In fact there's not much there except a road with verges large enough to park a few cars and a couple of wooden benches to sit on. But it is a little escape from civilisation and has a nice view of the sweeping and (so far) largely unspoilt views of Langsett reservoir and the grouse moors of the Peak District. Oddly enough, Hartcliff has also established itself as a place to congregate to watch natural phenomena, such as comets and eclipses. It is well away from street lights and has hardly any light pollution at night.
The Younger End
There are Recreation Grounds (swings, slides, etc.) and playing fields for children on Church View Road, Spring Vale by the Britannia and in Oxspring. Kids love the obstacle course at Cubley Hall and the grassed area for a kick-around with their football, as mum and dad watch on.
Penistone has a purpose-built Skateboard Park on the edge of the Showground, which is very popular with the teens. There is also the Surf and Snack Shack Youth Club, just off the High Street, opposite the top of Ward Street. Penistone Scouts and Guides is another society with a long history. It has a large meeting hall on Wentworth Road, where loonie drivers deposit and collect their offspring, too tired to walk. The Scout Hut also has a Brownies section for little girls.
Local musical groups, such as Thurlstone Brass Band and the Ukulele Band, encourage young people to explore their musical potential. There is an annual competition at Penistone Grammar School for young musicians. The theatrical groups mentioned above also encourage young people in the world of acting.
Groucho Marx: 'No man goes before his time - unless the boss leaves early.'